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Mobile clinics offer HIV testing to truckers
Irene Kuppan. 02 November 2005. Daily News. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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When a long distance truck driver stops at the Crosscape Express truck depot in Pinetown, Kwa-Zulu Natal, this week, he will have the option of getting tested for HIV/AIDS - and could even receive counselling.
Launched on Wednesday, this new Roadside Wellness Centre is one of many similar facilities countrywide, being a joint initiative between the National Bargaining Council (NBC) for the Road Freight Industry, the Road Freight Association and the Department of Health.
The Wellness Centres, consisting of mobile clinics introduced along national trucking routes, are aimed at truck drivers and sex workers and provide HIV/AIDS awareness education, primary healthcare, sexually transmitted infections (STI) treatment, TB testing and condom distribution.
Louis Hollander, chairperson of the NBC, estimated that with at least 30 percent of the country's truck drivers being HIV positive, the 10 mobile Wellness Centres set up countrywide played a valuable role in stemming the tide of the disease.
The three new mobile centres launched this week would target the truck depots.
"Previously we've been catering for long distance drivers along the routes and not the staff or depots. But of the 76 000 employed in the industry, only 35 000 are truck drivers. The rest work in the depots," said Hollander.
He said the main aim was to get truck drivers and other staff to voluntarily go for HIV/AIDS testing and counselling. |
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